why i ship ezran and ellis
I actually meant to make this post before S3 came out, as the feels for these two tackled me a little while ago back in October, but never got around to it and well — no time like the present, right? What started out as a cute little consideration on one of my first rewatches of S1 blossomed into investment, to a certain degree, and convinced compatibility.
First, beyond the fact that each are adorable individually, and that Ellis is a fantastic character and I’d love to see more of her in the future, I made a short list of reasons as to why I think they suit one another, and why I got invested in a rarepair that may never interact again, lmao.
So yeah, I’m going to talk about why I ship Ezran and Ellis, and maybe by the end of this post, you will too! :)
1) personality and balance
In 1x09, Ezran more or less admits to being a lonely kid. “I’ve always felt different,” he admits to Rayla. “It’s hard for me to make friends with other kids. I just feel like… I don’t fit in.” This implies that Ezran has tried and failed, and that Rayla is the outlier. She however always maintains a very sibling like bond with him, reminiscent of the one he shares with Callum.
Ellis, however, is firmly very much Ezran’s friend, and he’s never shown to struggle getting along with her. Their personalities don’t always mesh flawlessly, but they’re shown to depend and trust each other. She even saves his life from the monster slug!
Then, they’re shown to choose each other’s company during the three days they stay at the Moon Nexus, working together to try and teach Zym how to fly… with varying degrees of success.
So they enjoy each other’s company, make each other laugh, and are close in age. Ezran is shown to feel like he fits in with Ellis, for reasons I’ll get into more I think a bit before. But Ellis also shown to be a rather quirky little girl with a pretty intense personality, and while Ezran is a little initially unsure, he’s still open and receptive with her.
E: How do you plan for indescribable terrors? I feel like you need to be able to describe them first.
El: Horrifying, blood curdling, creepy, but in a super extreme way that feels like it’s lighting your soul on fire.
E: I think that helps.
I also feel like Ellis’ more intense, spontaneous nature so to speak would balance Ezran out well especially as they grow older. She’s incredibly nonchalant (not grossed out by the grubs) and would be able to take most things in her stride even when he faltered at say, a diplomatic dinner. She’s shown to have a good sense of humour and we know Ezran does too, with the jokes they make about the Cursed Caldera and the way he’ll tease Callum. (And stuff her face with jelly tarts, too.)
They each have a strong nurturing side, so neither would be doing more emotional labour than the other, which I’ll expand on later, too.
They also each have a decidedly hopeful nature that would reinforce these qualities in each other, even when one wavered. Where Callum and Rayla are always more realistic, Ezran and Ellis remain more optimistic not because they are unaware of the situation, but because they believe they can overcome it and believe in their own strengths and the goodness of others, like the miracle healer.
C: It’s our only chance. Got a better idea?
R: As a matter of fact… I do not.
El: I’ll get us to that tree, the healer will find us there, and she’ll save the Egg.
E: And maybe she can help your hand too.
Ellis does indeed extend her hopeful, compassionate nature to Ezran too, even in the face of evidence she intimately knows, and shows their quick familiarity and comfort level with each other too by using a nickname we’ve only seen his family, closest friends (Claudia), and Rayla use by that point, too.
They also show a willingness to take a risk to help other people just because they can, among many other parallels between them (running away when faced with grief / the possible death of a loved one, for example).
2) a shared love for animals
I do think though, this was the first thing that drew me to the ship in the first place. Ellis is the only other character shown to have a similar bond to animals that Ezran does, being able to talk to them notwithstanding. Just the idea of this gift that Ezran had that always made him feel both more alone and less alone being something that Ellis would absolutely cherish makes my heart warm.
Like, this girl, much like Ezran, has an animal for her best friend. I can’t even imagine how much she would love being able to have someone translate to her what Ava is saying, even just on a day by day basis. Either one of them could bring home any multitude of strays and the other would just be completely stoked about it.
I also think their strong connection to animals is one of the reasons why Ezran feels so comfortable with her, and why they get along as well as they do. Whenever they interact they’re not far from their best friends, Bait and Ava, and I don’t think either of them could be with someone who wasn’t 100% down for that 99% of the time.
3) a queen for katolis
What I mean by this is the political maneuverings their union would bring due to Ezran’s position as king — or in reality, lack thereof. Ellis’ town is still within Katolis which makes her a citizen of Katolis. With one family member of Katolis already married off (Callum with Rayla, if not also eventually Amaya with Janai) Katolis will likely want Ezran to not marry someone from Xadia just as a security blanket.
There also seems to be no verdict that a monarch can’t marry below their station, given how new royal lines are started (through death/abdication, and the ascension of orphans allowed only) and that Sarai was presumably of a lower class as well before she married Harrow, and there were no problems presented with that. So Ellis being a young girl from a rather small town wouldn’t be an issue.
Then there’s the fact that beyond personality — I think Ezran will grow to be far more serious in his late teens and early twenties, as he grows into being king, and will need someone more so who can bring out his youthful side — the serious young queen Aanya, the more prominent ship partner for him in fandom, perhaps, has her own kingdom to rule. For each of them, their kingdoms are all they have left of their parents, so I cannot see either of them abdicating.
In addition, if they were married, there would always be a part of Aanya more concerned with Duren than Katolis in a way, in day to day political matters — rather than in something massive, like a battle for peace with a long standing ally. Particularly if neither abdicated and they had to try and rule two kingdoms at once, their own individually as well, and who knows where they would even live, or would have to live separately.
Ellis meanwhile has the perspective of someone who doesn’t live in a big city and in a more isolated town, which seems to have some degree of poverty (or at least a lack of resources).
While she has a more fresh political perspective coming from a lower class background, whereas Ezran comes from an undeniably privileged one, Ellis would still be a citizen from Katolis and a queen for Katolis, first and foremost.
5) family
Then of course is the matter of family. One of the reasons I love Ellis as much as I do, beyond her being a very brave, spunky kid, is due to the bonds she forms with Rayla and particularly Callum. Not only does she show no prejudice towards Rayla, unlike the rest of her village (her experience with Lujanne may explain this, or she may just be more sweet hearted like Ezran) but she fully accepts that this elf assassin who tried to kill Ezran is now genuinely their friend and never looks back.
Ellis and Ezran’s nurturing sides are also on full display in 1x08 in their conversations with Rayla and Callum. Both are very sweet as the slightly older teens delve into their insecurities, Callum’s natural openness a good fit for someone friendly like Ellis, meanwhile Rayla finally opening up more to Ezran, someone she already loves and trusts suits her better, too.
But above all else, Ellis gets along exceedingly well with Callum and the two build each other up nicely.
I think for Callum it would be important that any partner he had got along with and cared for Ezran, and I can see Ezran having the same standards for his own partner, if he chose / wanted to have one when the time came. His brother is just as important to him, after all.
So Ellis and Callum would be best in-laws next to Rayla and Ezran, of course, and Ellis being able to get along with and broker peace between elves, to get along with Rayla who is also part of Ezran’s family now, I think, is incredibly meaningful to everyone involved.
4) conviction
But perhaps the greatest parallel between them, and why I think each of them could stand the pressure of being king and queen better side by side, is the strength of their convictions that S1 displays most notably, with the Cursed Caldera acting as a backdrop for each of them.
Ellis’ family doesn’t believe her stance about Ava, but she holds true to her convictions and climbs up the Cursed Caldera to protect her friend and do what she knows is right. Much like how Ezran trusted Rayla and chose to help return the Dragon Prince, or even more accurately, the trial Ezran faced in the Cursed Caldera was well. He held true to his convictions and knowledge of his experience — that the spider wasn’t real — even when his family doubted them.
And Ezran, through realizing that the spiders were an illusion, proves himself. But more than that, through the revelation that Lujanne is an illusionist and not a healer, he also leads to the events that prove Ellis more right than ever, too, in that Ava did not need a fourth leg in order to thrive and be happy.
In conclusion
In one another Ezran and Ellis could find a complementary and like minded companion. Their youth gives one another room to grow and to grow alongside each other, and each would bring unique things to the table that no other pairing could offer either of them. They’re also freaking adorable.
( Ezran making Ellis laugh)
